AHC: Western European Empire

Your challenge if you chose to accept it is with a POD of no earlier than 1200, to have the British Isles, Iberia and France united under one monarch. Bonus points if parts of Germany, Austria and Italy are included as well. Extra bonus points if this person is a Habsburg.
 
I just posted this on another timeline...

Well, you could have Portugal and Spain unite earlier with Miguel de Paz with a dynasty eventually reaching into the Mediterranean and most or all of the New World.

Perhaps the maximum would be as follows:

-Phillip II unites Spain and Portugal with Mary Tudor marrying him and (divergence) becoming pregnant with a son who is born in April 1555.

-Mary herself dies in childbirth, the son is named Henry for her father and becomes Henry IX of England and Spain upon Philip's death in 1598.

-Henry has the personality more of Charles V instead of his father, eventually reaching a compromise with the Dutch while governor there and permitting nominal Catholic rule with unwritten Protestant autonomy.

-Henry marries Margaret Valois in 1572 and they begin a family. Her male line dies out and Henry becomes king of France in 1580, starting the Habsburg (West) line.

-Upon the death of his father Phillip, Henri is king of England, Ireland, France, Netherlands, Franche-Comte, Naples, Milan, the Philippines, most of the islands of the Mediterranean, and all but a handful of outposts in the Western Hemisphere.

-Because of the ascension of Henri to the throne of France the Spanish armies opposed to them were used by Phillip to conquer Genoa and Savoy, permitting almost all of northern and southern Italy to be reunited

-With the declaration of the new Western Roman Empire in 1600 and establishment of Latin as the language of all state documents/court proceedings/government publications, smaller Italian states gravitate to Henry and permit an early unification of the peninsula by 1607. Its capital is based at Geneva as it does not belong to any one of the major kingdoms in question while being on major trade routes.

-Pope Marcellus III, formerly Cardinal Robert Bellarmine, exchanges control of the Exarchate of Rome (the Church-owned lands in the Papal States outside of Rome itself) for secured control of key appointments and autonomy of Rome itself, a roughly 30 mile area around it, and reaffirmed control over the Church with limited interference by the Emperor over Church affairs.

-Habsburg marriage of the two branches of second cousins once removed (Robert I, son of Henri, and Anne of Austria, daughter of Charles II) brings Austria, most German states, Hungary, Croatia, Bohemia, and other areas to Western control in 1593 with their marriage

-Ottoman miscalculations lead (like OTL) to parts of the Balkans coming back to Christian control in 1605 and (unlike OTL) again in 1625

-By the time of his death in 1628 at age 73, Henri has five surviving daughters, four surviving sons (two of whom are fit to govern with one having Down syndrome and another the madness of the Valois family, the eldest succeeds as Robert I of the Western Empire), and his wife Margaret dies within a month of him.

-Robert I inherits an Empire including but not limited to: Portugal, Spain, France, England, Ireland, Netherlands, Milan, Genoa, Savoy, Naples, Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily, German principalities, Austria, Croatia, Dalmatia, Slovenia, Hungary, Transylvania, Bosnia, Serbia, Wallachia, Moldova, and Italy.
 
France claims the entirety of the Spanish Habsburg inheritance and somehow defeats the Coalition armies.Everyone else is fu%ked if that happens.
 
It won't happen. France and Spain had been arch-enemies for 2 centuries.

Spain (Castile-Aragon) could accept a new french dynasty closely tried to the spanish Habsburgs. It could not accepted being government from Paris by the king if France. It was 2 or 3 centuries too late for such a scheme to work.
 
Your challenge if you chose to accept it is with a POD of no earlier than 1200, to have the British Isles, Iberia and France united under one monarch. Bonus points if parts of Germany, Austria and Italy are included as well. Extra bonus points if this person is a Habsburg.

Off the top of my head, the Angevin Empire (somehow) gets involved in Spain.
 
I just posted this on another timeline...

Well, you could have Portugal and Spain unite earlier with Miguel de Paz with a dynasty eventually reaching into the Mediterranean and most or all of the New World.

Perhaps the maximum would be as follows:

-Phillip II unites Spain and Portugal with Mary Tudor marrying him and (divergence) becoming pregnant with a son who is born in April 1555.

-Mary herself dies in childbirth, the son is named Henry for her father and becomes Henry IX of England and Spain upon Philip's death in 1598.

-Henry has the personality more of Charles V instead of his father, eventually reaching a compromise with the Dutch while governor there and permitting nominal Catholic rule with unwritten Protestant autonomy.

-Henry marries Margaret Valois in 1572 and they begin a family. Her male line dies out and Henry becomes king of France in 1580, starting the Habsburg (West) line.

-Upon the death of his father Phillip, Henri is king of England, Ireland, France, Netherlands, Franche-Comte, Naples, Milan, the Philippines, most of the islands of the Mediterranean, and all but a handful of outposts in the Western Hemisphere.

-Because of the ascension of Henri to the throne of France the Spanish armies opposed to them were used by Phillip to conquer Genoa and Savoy, permitting almost all of northern and southern Italy to be reunited

-With the declaration of the new Western Roman Empire in 1600 and establishment of Latin as the language of all state documents/court proceedings/government publications, smaller Italian states gravitate to Henry and permit an early unification of the peninsula by 1607. Its capital is based at Geneva as it does not belong to any one of the major kingdoms in question while being on major trade routes.

-Pope Marcellus III, formerly Cardinal Robert Bellarmine, exchanges control of the Exarchate of Rome (the Church-owned lands in the Papal States outside of Rome itself) for secured control of key appointments and autonomy of Rome itself, a roughly 30 mile area around it, and reaffirmed control over the Church with limited interference by the Emperor over Church affairs.

-Habsburg marriage of the two branches of second cousins once removed (Robert I, son of Henri, and Anne of Austria, daughter of Charles II) brings Austria, most German states, Hungary, Croatia, Bohemia, and other areas to Western control in 1593 with their marriage

-Ottoman miscalculations lead (like OTL) to parts of the Balkans coming back to Christian control in 1605 and (unlike OTL) again in 1625

-By the time of his death in 1628 at age 73, Henri has five surviving daughters, four surviving sons (two of whom are fit to govern with one having Down syndrome and another the madness of the Valois family, the eldest succeeds as Robert I of the Western Empire), and his wife Margaret dies within a month of him.

-Robert I inherits an Empire including but not limited to: Portugal, Spain, France, England, Ireland, Netherlands, Milan, Genoa, Savoy, Naples, Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily, German principalities, Austria, Croatia, Dalmatia, Slovenia, Hungary, Transylvania, Bosnia, Serbia, Wallachia, Moldova, and Italy.
I have a feeling Robert I is going to face revolts from just about everywhere. Still, this is extremely impressive.
 
I have a feeling Robert I is going to face revolts from just about everywhere. Still, this is extremely impressive.
Eh, if Emperors follow the example of TTL's deal with the Netherlands, the empire could probably survive for a good while. And when you really think about it, if the various "national" nobilities can put a side aspirations for a throne, it kind of works out for them too. They get a fairly free hand in running their country via Diets/Parliaments/Parlements/Cortes. And if they overreach the Emperor sends in loyal troops from elsewhere. It could, in theory trigger the earlier birth limited democracy and meritocratic bureaucracy: After one too many revolts in I dunno, France, by the former Princes of the Blood, some Emperor seeks alliances with the magnates and moneyed city classes and begins appointing podestà-like officials, specifically experienced outsiders who don't have local loyalties/baggage.

Of course, Europe could also stagnate given a prolonged period of limited strife, although personally I think by this point European ascendance is already too far in motion and in fact European 'unification' would only result in a more total European hegemony across the world over the coming centuries.

My one issue with the proposed TL: Where the hell did you get the name Robert? :p
 
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